Pickett bounces back with 300-yard game
The 300-yard game is the bar to achieve for quarterbacks. Like 100-yard games for receivers or running backs, hitting 300 passing yards in a game is the mark of a successful performance.
On Saturday, Kenny Pickett hit that target for the second time in his career as he led the Panthers to a 20-10 win over Ohio at Heinz Field.
Pickett’s final stat line was 321 yards and one touchdown on 26-of-37 passing, a notable improvement over his performance in the season opener a week ago. In that game, Pickett completed 21-of-41 for 185 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
“I felt comfortable last week,” Pickett said after Saturday’s win. “I was real happy with the game plan and I felt good going over it multiple times with Coach and we did the same thing again this week. I just think we executed better all-around, not just myself but the offensive line blocked great, the receivers got open and we were just clicking.”
Pickett’s primary connection in Saturday’s game was fellow New Jersey native Maurice Ffrench. The senior receiver caught 10 passes for 138 yards - both career highs - and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 74-yard catch-and-run that turned a third-and-4 deep in Pitt territory into a 10-0 Panther lead.
“I had a corner route and I started to scramble, so the first thing in my mind was to get open for him. There was a hole right there - in cover-two, there’s always a zone on the hash plus three, and I was right there. He saw me and made a play.”
That was something that didn’t happen nearly enough in the season opener against Virginia. With drops, overthrows and near-constant pressure - center Jimmy Morrissey said the line allowed the Cavaliers’ defense to pressure Pickett 14 times - the passing game under first-year coordinator Mark Whipple never took off.
Head coach Pat Narduzzi rejected the notion that Pickett alone was responsible for either the poor performance last week or the improvement this week.
“Did he bounce back or did everybody make some catches for him?” Narduzzi said after the game. “We still had a couple drops. But you know, the week before he's got some drops, and then he throws - then he tries to make something happen and then he throws a pick. So did Kenny bounce back or did the receivers bounce back? It's a combination of everything. So everybody wants to put it on the quarterback, No. 8. No. 8 is a dang good football player. Dang good football player.
“I think they all bounced back. I think the receivers did a great job of catching the ball. There were some great catches out there.”
Saturday was Pickett’s second career 300-yard game, following last season’s win at Wake Forest in November when he threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns. With 321 against Ohio, Pickett became the first Pitt quarterback to post multiple 300-yard games since Tom Savage did it twice in 2013.
Saturday also broke a rather ugly stretch for Pickett. In the four games between last year’s win at Wake Forest and Saturday’s win over Ohio, he threw for a combined total of 455 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
That’s an average of 113.8 yards per game - or more than 200 yards less than Pickett had on Saturday. So the Ohio game wasn't just a 300-yard game; it was a bounce-back from a rough sequence of games.
From Pickett's perspective, it was more about breaking the team's four-game losing streak and getting a first win for 2019.
“I think it was important for our whole team to have a bounce-back game, not just myself,” Pickett said.